Be still, a eunuch speaketh...

OK, so I was neutered. I was "done". I'll never have The Urge to "take a lady" or sire kittens. Neither will my friend pictured at left. He was a stray rescued off the streets and was neutered, and is now awaiting adoption at Auntie S' home. So both he and I have been shut out of male cats' essential experience of sex and parenthood, but I think a greater good is served.

Excuse me, but here's where I'll do a little commercial for responsible cat care:

Neutering is the right thing to do by your cat. Here's why:

It curbs its wandering instinct - somewhat: OK, so I've made some escapes to freedom, but I really, really took my human's home as my own. It had my own smells, and even after a daring escapade or two, it was where I'd come home to. And because it was my territory, I hardly felt the need to mark it by spraying [ie, peeing] all over her furniture. Neutering therefore makes it entirely possible to raise [and love!] a 100% indoor cat.

A housebound cat is safe from harm: When a cat stays indoors all the time, it is less likely to get hurt or killed by cars or pick up pests and diseases from other animals or the neighbourhood. Indoor cats have been proven to live far longer than their street cousins.

A neutered pet will not go around spreading unwanted progeny: OK, this is the obvious one. Go take a look at the latest picture book produced by the Cat Welfare Society (CWS) about life on the streets for strays. [The title is "The Real Singapore Cat". Click here to get to the webpage where you can buy it and help the good folk at CWS!]

Many well-meaning people have been seen feeding whole families of stray cats. While it is a kind thing to do, it just exacerbates the problem of stray cats in the neighbourhood. When food supply is not in question, full-blooded [that is, intact males unlike yours truly] will just do it (thank you, Nike). They beget kittens, who, in less than a year, will beget their own as well.

And when a neigbourhood group of cats grows in number, they just set themselves up for trouble. They are noisy come mating time. Do you see the I-Hate-Cat-O-Meter turning orange? They may trespass in areas where they are not liked. The Hate-O-Meter glows red here. They send pet dogs into a frenzy - and maybe a few pet dogs have gotten lost/kidnapped/run over this way while they chase a wayward cat down the street. Now the Hate-O-Meter goes off the scale...

Way too many young ones are being brought into this world by cats which can still do it. Many of these cats don't make it to adulthood. For those that do, life is not pretty. Food is not a sure thing. They get run over by cars. They get all manner of unspeakable acts done to them by cat-haters. [See various reports in The Straits Times over the years about cats who have had hot water poured on them, or have been thrown off high-rises, or have had rubber bands tied around their tails or ears, causing fatal, maggot-filled infections. That's how you get a pus-sy pussy - grim pun fully intended.]

And then when Sars hit, stray cats got blamed - wrongly, I believe - for spreading the bug. Hundreds of Singapore stray cats got rounded up for culling. Many of the cats in Auntie S' house awaiting adoption were rescued from death by culling. That was genocide!!

The Cantonese have a stock phrase that insults us cats. They call us lat tat mau, literally, "dirty cats", as if filth, pestilence and odours are a natural part of our anatomy when they really aren't. [If you have ever kept indoor cats, you'll know we are clean and odour-free, unlike dogs which start to smell a mere four days after a bath.

So I say to all of you out there who are feeding stray cats: DON'T. You have two options. One is to round them up, get them into cages and have them sterilised. You may then re-introduce them into the neighbourhood where you found them. They can live out their natural lives there without swelling the stray cat population. Your other option is to adopt them as your own and keep them indoors - and get them sterilised too, for the reasons outlined in this post.

If you continue feeding them without getting them "done", you'll just be adding to the stray cat population. I'll say again it is not a pretty life, and no one can fault the simple logic of the folks at the Cat Welfare Society: The fewer cats born, the fewer cats suffer and die.

This is my message today. Top Cat checking out.